You're probably woken up by the explosion first. A loud, deafening boom comes from behind the walls of the residential district. When you look outside your window towards the darker, more secretive area of the city, you might see the structure around it... crumbling, the land falling in on itself slowly but surely. That might be what wakes you up first. If it doesn't, you may be awoken instead by the sudden jerking feeling behind your navel pulling you from where you are to somewhere... else.
It's dark. The first thing you notice is that it's dark -- and then come the scrabbling sounds of creatures in the dark, like metal being dragged across metal, a chilling, sharp sound. The first thing that becomes clear, as your vision adjusts, is that you're on a rickety pathway, metal and rusting and frail, above what appears to be yawning blackness. Far, far below, there's the faint sound of rushing water, a ways away.
The second thing that becomes clear is that you are very much not alone. Something is out there with you, and from the screeching metallic noises that come ever closer, it seems to be stalking you.
Thankfully, you're not alone -- right?  ...
...........
................
:)
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PHASE I [ ??? ] It’s drafty here. You’re below ground, that’s for certain from the echoes of the wind in the darkness. If you continue on forwards along the rickety, metal railing that serves as a walkway, the skittering noises of creatures in the dark follow -- but they don’t appear.
It seems everyone has been dumped along this pathway at random; you may be with friends, with enemies or with someone you’ve never met before, but either way, it soon becomes clear. There are only two ways to go along this path: up or down.
If you choose to take the path that follows a gradual slope down, the sounds of water lapping against a surface increase bit by bit, the air growing heavier and danker, until finally, the metallic platform gives way very suddenly (watch your step!) to a muddy bank. Down here, everything is darker, and not far away there’s the water. It’s cold and frigid and there are unfriendly creatures that await if you choose to delve into it. However, if you brave those creatures, and dive deeply enough, there is a mask. It rests half-buried by silt and rocks, but it’s there, and can be found by any intrepid explorers.
Somehow, it feels a little familiar.
And if you carry on in the cave system underground, eventually you will come across what appears to be an altar. There is blood on it -- not fresh, but not more than a month old -- and pieces of trinkets. Old bits of cloth, locks of hair, and some of them may even be familiar. Any dropped character who has a reasonably large amount of spiritual or magical power may have left scraps, such as pieces of clothing, trinkets, hair, or the sort behind at the altar.
Maybe that's why they weren't in the Nexus Code.
PHASE II [ ??? ] If you go up, you will eventually make your way above ground. It takes some time, and some luck -- you’ll have to avoid rusty railing and pathways, the path crumbling under you and that creeping sensation that something is following and watching you -- and then you’ll suddenly be in fresh air.
Well. It’s not so fresh, really.
The landscape is broken down and crumbled. It may have once been part of the city of Cerealia, but now it is in utter disrepair and decay. Buildings have crumbled, and debris is everywhere. There are signs of the same level of technology that Cerealia has -- but it is all broken down and utterly inaccessible.
And you’re not alone.
It seems the technology and metal and broken down destruction has gained sentience over its time sitting alone, waiting. And it is not happy to be disturbed. The creatures are made of pieces of everything around them, and when cut down, they’ll just slowly rebuild themselves from the debris.
It might be time to run.
They aren't happy about being disturbed, and you're in their way.
PHASE III [ ??? ] Above ground, there are a lot of broken down buildings.
Some can’t be accessed at all; some are too broken, too reduced to rubble. For those looking for shelter, they'll be able to find buildings where the doors can be forced open and they can camp out on the inside to various degrees of stability. Though the ceiling may cave in or the floor fall out from under you at a moment's notice, it's better than being out there. Be careful, because none of the architecture here can be trusted anymore.
And other buildings... are even less trustworthy than that.
There is a series of buildings in the midst of the wasteland, somehow still standing. They stand there silently, towering over the rest of the rubble in their two-story glory, and if the doors are forced open, it soon becomes clear that the building itself is full of mirrors.
Once, the mirrors had perhaps covered the walls and ceiling. Once, this building might have been akin to something of a ballet studio, somewhere to express yourself creatively. But now the mirrors are shattered and broken into pieces and the building lacks the joy it might have once held. Shards of mirror cover the floor, some big, some not so big, but they still hang from the walls as well and everywhere you look, you can see yourself.
And then, the reflection changes. From one blink to the next, you see a memory playing in the mirrors. Your memory. You’ll see a glimpse of one of your most traumatic or life-changing moments, broken up but clear in the shards. Blink and look away, and it’s gone, only to show up again in the next mirror a few moments later. Surely it’s just a trick of the light, right?
Except if someone else is with you, they’ll see it too -- and you might end up seeing a bit of their own past as well. Hope you're fond of sharing.
PHASE IV [ ??? ] If you survive the monsters, the crumbling landscape and the untrustworthy buildings, you may eventually find a terminal. It is buried deep among the rubble. One turn around a corner, one stumble into a hole, and you will find it. It sits there, out in the middle of nowhere; the building in which it used to be housed is apparently long gone, reduced to nothing but rubble.
And if you turn it on, there is a brief message.
Transmission Broadcasting.
Transmission Connected.
And then, there is a face.
BONUS [ ??? ] For those who have been wearing their masks a little too much, they might also start to notice that there are some strange effects attached, which worsen the more they’ve been wearing said masks. How badly they worsen is up to your discretion.
➝ Broken Mask: An intense feeling of paranoia, focused on whoever your character is with. They might also begin to remember fabricated memories of being betrayed by those people.
➝ Barcode Mask: Everything will begin to have value to them. There will be whispers in the back of their mind of the worth of their friends, the worth of a monster, the worth of everything around them. An intense need to own and consume as much as possible and as quickly as possible.
➝ Dripping Blood Mask: An intense lack of self-worth, a hollow feeling and thoughts of being weak and empty. Feeling as disposable as possible and an intense listless along with it.
➝ :( Mask: A need to prove yourself, to show everyone how strong you are as quickly as possible. You can do things, you can be of worth to everyone around you. Why won't they see that? Why?
➝ Ivy Mask: A choking sort of terror from all things metal and technology based, and a need to lash out against it. An intense distrust for anything that they feel is against the laws of nature.
➝ Grey Mask: More personable than normal, more emotional, more empathetic. An intense feeling of kindness and gratitude to those around you and a renewed love of life.
➝ Feather Mask: A dulled, lack of emotion. A detached feeling to everything around you. A sort of bland curiosity towards things without any empathetic reaction.
➝ Bloody Fingerprints Mask: They'll feel absolutely fine. No change.
The effects of the broken mask can stack on top of the others, if they chose to break their mask after the other effects began to appear. No other effects can be stacked, as no other changes can be stacked.
PENALTY [ ??? ] For characters who die while in the dark parts of the city, things will get... a little strange. They will die as normal, but they will wake up almost immediately after their death -- in the Nexus Code. They will have a few surreal moments to be there, to see their friends who have left Cerealia hanging lifelessly from odd, glimmering strands (though there are some faces, of course, that are missing, anyone who was spiritual, or magical, seems strangely absent) and then --
They’re back to being dead.
When characters revive in Cerealia, anywhere from one IC day to three or four IC days later, they will find that things are… not quite right with their code. They’re glitching, for a lack of a better word. Sometimes, their fingers will phase right through an object, their own limbs registering as cold and lifeless. Sometimes, they will see a face watching them -- but when they turn around to try to see who it is, the face will be gone.
These effects will last an IC week, before slowly things go back to normal.
That was strange.
[ Remember to apply proper warnings on threads with sensitive or inappropriate material and do let a mod know if your thread careens off into maiming or canoodling so we can lock the log. ] |
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You're hurt.
[ don't think you've gotten away this easily, Hiro. He's just deeply worried about you. And he bends down to check on his brother's leg. ]
What happened?
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There were a lot of monsters in the water. [A small sniff.] I couldn't see anything down there since it was way too dark and I ran through the water and something bit me. So I shot it to get it to let go. [And there was other help but he won't say such just yet.] It's not as bad as it looks now.
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worrying over his brother would pass over time, but the information he would have gotten would have been valuable to every single person in cerealia. but he couldn't even get any information from that weird screeching alien from the terminal.
he feels so useless.
to help hiro, he tears his sleeve and wraps the cloth around his brother's leg. he has nothing to disinfect it, but at least the cloth will stop the bleeding. ]
You're fine now.
[ though at the back of his mind, he can't help but doubt himself. he probably won't be able to protect hiro. not anymore. ]
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...ah. Right. Everything that appeared in the mirror.
He holds still while Tadashi bandages his leg, mildly reminiscent of when they were kids and Hiro would get beat up by older kids at school.]
...are you? [Fine, he means.]
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not to mention, he saw something disturbing just a few minutes ago. and to think, he almost hurt his brother.
he's not fine.
but he's not going to tell his brother that.
and because he was slightly ready for something like this, he pulls out a piece of candy - still covered in plastic, of course - from his pocket. he puts it in hiro's hand as he gets up. ]
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Tadashi doesn't say anything, simply patching him up and that would have been fine but he knows better. How could Tadashi be fine after something like that, seeing what had happened in the wake of his death and changing everything he believed? Not to mention what's occurred in the colony with Ami and his own questions and stance on his death.
Tadashi Hamada is not fine. He knows that instinctually and so when he feels the candy in his hand he looks at it for a moment before balling both hands into small fists, arms shaking slightly even as his eyes clench shut so he can stop seeing things in the mirrors. The peripheral visions of the kabuki mask spinning on the floor as they revealed Callaghan for who he was. The echoing noise that follows.
'Baymax. Destroy.'
He's trying very hard not to completely lose it mostly for Tadashi's sake. Tadashi Hamada is not okay; the last thing he needs is his brother falling apart and being so needy and so reckless, making him realize what he nearly became just because he wasn't around to help.]
I'm sorry. [It's whispered and trembling and he can't look him in the face. It's easier to stare at his brother's sneakers instead. And it's easier than trying to explain everything he's sorry for.]
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You did what you felt was right at the time. [ he's trying to comfort his brother, of course, but that's all there is to it. there's barely any sincerity in his tone.
now it makes sense, though. why there wasn't a building in sfit named after callaghan. if he did steal hiro's microbots, he must have used it for something terrible. it's so painful. to think that somebody he looked up to wasn't that meritorious after all. ]
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"You...don't believe me. You don't believe any of this."
He would rather not be comforted than be lied to, really. There are so many things that still need to be said, so many ways to describe the chain of events. The way the man in the mask had stolen his microbots and nearly killed him. The way that Hiro had worked to create the team to stop him. The reveal. The way that he realized Callaghan wanted revenge on Krei.
The way grief made him feel so hopeless and so lost and he never wanted to feel that way. The way grief made him channel the sadness and the hurt into something else, something so violent just to deal; he hadn't cried at Tadashi's funeral, too numb to accept what had happened. Everything had stopped making sense and the days blurred together after his death. This was something to work on. This was something to do. This was something that shocked his senses and blinded him and it's in those moments he idly realizes just how so, so screwed up the situation is.
So. Tadashi speaks and Hiro understands just how fake it is. He feels the tightness in his chest and something clawing up his throat, the injustice that comes from having to tel him this way, the unfair way he can't even tell him everything else without it sounding just as fake.
All he ever wanted now since then was to try and help people and be like Tadashi. Use Baymax for good. Keep people safe and protect and save the world. And none of it matters now that he's facing Tadashi's judgment.]
...yeah. [He turns his back on him, on the mirrors and he waits for Tadashi to do the same.] We should get out of here. [He wants to tell him everything else, but he's pretty sure Tadashi doesn't want to hear it either.]
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and what hurts him more is that he doesn't even feel that it's right. he wants to just storm off and be alone, and probably even die because what is even there to lose anymore? but he can't. he knows it's the wrong thing to do. ]
Let's go. [ that's all he says, and he turns to walk towards the direction of the building's door. or the remains of it, at least.
time to find another place to seek refuge in. ]
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Just like it's always been.
He trails after him, head bowed low as he steps on shards that continue to reflect Baymax's red eyes the longer he looks at them. His steps are slow and slightly labored as he limps along but he's keeping up as well as he can.]
Where to? [He's already planning on slipping away at some point. Quietly, just casually, to give Tadashi space.]
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instead of talking, he walks slowly to another abandoned building. it was probably a restaurant at some point because there are broken tables and chairs everywhere.
and then he takes a seat. ]
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He debates leaving again...but ultimately takes a seat across from him and stares down at the table top. Tadashi might be giving him the silent treatment, but it's driving him crazy not to say anything.]
...maybe there's still something left over in the wreckage. Non-perishables or something...they've got those in restaurants, right? Aunt Cass kept some canned goods in the store room at Lucky Cat.
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he debates on what to do for a moment before he gets up. ]
Don't go anywhere.
[ and he looks for some cabinets or whatever storage materials he can find around the place, eventually going to what seems like the kitchen and the back of the restaurant, and out of hiro's sight.
once he's alone, he lets out a sigh. he has no idea what to do about what he had seen and heard. he still doesn't. and he is very upset at hiro for even trying to harm somebody. tadashi isn't defending callaghan by any means, but hiro could have done something else instead of try to kill the man.
was this the kind of brother he raised? what would aunt cass even say? she would go ballistic if she found out.
maybe he should just forget about the whole deal. hiro speaks about his—no, their friends—as if nothing's happened. and they were there when hiro tried to kill callaghan. had they forgiven hiro, too? of course, they have. they wouldn't have been the big hero 6, otherwise.
this was very unbecoming of tadashi hamada.
he reflects on these things as he goes about the debris. he finds nothing, though, and two to three minutes later, he pops back out and takes his a seat again. ]
I didn't find anything, sorry.
[ then he shakes his head and rests his arms on the table, then flops. ]
We'll be fine, okay? We're going to get out of this place one way or another.
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He never wanted Tadashi to be disappointed.
'Is this what Tadashi would have wanted?' Baymax had been right all along. Speaking of...where was the robot? Back in the colony, he assumes. He would be able to fix this, Hiro thinks. But he's not here now. They're on their own to fix this.
He needs to tell him the rest, but he's not sure if Tadashi will even listen right now. When the older boy comes back Hiro's mirroring his stance with his arms folded on the table and face mostly buried in them. He cracks an eye open to stare at Tadashi, frowning lightly.]
How? [The way he says it though is an indication of one thing. He doesn't mean how they're going to get out. He's asking how they're going to be fine. How is it possible after everything.]
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We'll think of something. Together.
[ then he looks away, hand still on hiro's head. ]
So don't give up on me, alright?
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...Tadashi. There's a lot more you need to know and...I know none of it makes sense but. [He swallows slightly. Maybe he's asking a lot.] Don't give up on me either. You never have. ["Please don't start now."] I'm not gonna let you down.
[He refuses to give up on him either. That's something that never crossed his mind at all.]
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I think I had an existential crisis back there, but I know who I am now. [ somebody who would forgive people. somebody who would never hold grudges. somebody who would never hurt anybody, physically or emotionally. ] I'm sorry.
[ as for what he doesn't know? it's probably better to keep him in the dark, hiro. he's not interested in knowing now, either. ]
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Yeah. Me too. [Back then when things hadn't made sense. Back then when he'd been so hurt and so angry. How dare he. How dare Robert Callaghan disregard Tadashi as someone so easily disposed. A casualty. His brother had looked up to the man so much and knowing he thought so little of his death...it still bothers Hiro. It still bothers him greatly and it's evident in the way he's still shaking slightly.
But he refuses to cry still. They have to get out of this first. And the "me too" applies doubly for the apology.] I never wanted you to find out this way. ["I wish I knew how to fix this."]
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and he can't believe he almost threw that away. ]
What's done is done. There's nothing else we can do about that.
[ there was also the issue of baymax, and how the robot had started hurting people rather than healing them. but he's made his resolve once again. he promised their dead parents that he'll protect hiro, and now, he's promising hiro silently that he won't ever leave him. even with the boy's past transgressions. ]
It's over, isn't it? [ hiro's violent stint; the issue with callaghan; overriding baymax's settings. ]
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It's not like that anymore back home. He knows that's why he's clinging to him more than usual. It's a problem, but not one he wants to address yet.
He doesn't immediately respond. To answer that question would be to tell him how everything else went back home. Project Silent Sparrow. Abigail. The portal. Losing and rebuilding Baymax. But to not answer would be even more distressing.]
It's over. That was it. [There's a small sniff before he mumbles again.] It's not in our design to hurt a human being. ["Our." Baymax is safe, too.]
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I saw the alien from the terminal again.
... whatever that was.
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The fact that Tadashi found the alien again is of interest and he lifts both eyebrows.]
What'd it say to you?
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Something about being unworthy. It wouldn't feed me information.
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If you want to talk to it, don't ever break your mask. [ unless you already did, then oops. ]
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